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A monster is eating my mountain

Today was one of those days that I've known for a long time was coming.But one that I've tried to block out of reality.Today when I hiked up my trail on Russel mt.,just pass my "On a Mountain Top"cache,a monster was waiting there for me.

This particular monster has a long neck and a head with huge teeth, its main diet is trees.I'm talking about a monster called a "Fella Buncher",a mechanical tree harvester. Some of the trail beyond the cache is already gone and I'm afraid that the rest of it is in danger.

The mountain was bought a few years ago by E.J.Carrier a logging company from Jackman Me.He has been cutting around the bottom of the mountain ever since.I've been hoping beyond hope that he wouldn't cut the top.Today that hope came to an end. Happy _____ New Year!!!!

The Carrier family is well known in central Maine. They're all businessmen, but I haven't really heard anything bad about the family.

One of the Carrier brothers was killed in a tragic accident in Skowhegan a year or so ago (Richard???), and Denis Carrier is the owner of Kennebec Lumber - with a sawmill in Solon - and they produce some FANTASTIC hardwood flooring (which we put in 4 rooms in our house this last year).

Bruce; I totally agree with you about the Carrier family.Their wood cutting practices are no worst then anybody else's and in some instances much better.My beef is not with anyone in particular,but instead its with logging practices in general.

I've been fortunate enough to have grown up in the northern Me. woods.I'm old enough to remember four foot pulp piled for miles on great northern land,to have seen it run down the Penobscot river from Rip dam.I went to work in the woods as a young man and eventually my brother and I had our own buisness.I've cut wood with crawler tractors and I've cut wood with skidders.I've watch the evolution of the mechanical harvesters.

Todays wood cutting pratices in my humble opion are more about greed then wood management.The cutting of three hundred year old,twenty five foot tall spruce off the top of Maine mountains is not good forestry practices.

I apologize for getting on my high horse about this issue,but I feel that if we don't soon we'll have none of those wonderful places we enjoy geocaching in.Take a ride to N.H. some day and look at the top of their mts.What you'll see are house's and condominiums looking back at you where once was pristine forest.

I've been fortunate enough to have grown up in the northern Me. woods.I'm old enough to remember four foot pulp piled for miles on great northern land,to have seen it run down the Penobscot river from Rip dam.I went to work in the woods as a young man and eventually my brother and I had our own buisness.I've cut wood with crawler tractors and I've cut wood with skidders.I've watch the evolution of the mechanical harvesters.

My first 1 1/2 years in college were at a forestry school. Our forestry lab taught us to cut trees with crosscut saws, buck them with buck saws, and stump pile the wood - ready for the horses. Never saw a chain saw and didn't know what a skidder was! LOL!

In 1977 - the last year they ran pulp in the Kennebec - my brother ran one of the boats towing rafts of pulp across Wyman lake.

Sheesh! For that matter, try and find a mill that will buy 4-foot pulp these days! You can't even cut and sell your own wood these days unless you're a "professional forester".

Just wait - someone will invent newsprint and toilet paper made from recycled plastic and that will be the end of the pulp mills! LOL!

While I hate to see the "wilderness" shrink I also have observed that those who voice the most concern haven't accepted the fact that they are part of the problem too. It's not "everyone else" causing the problem its everyone, including the person vocalizing their concern. The problem isn't forestry practices, its the demand put on our natural resources. As demand for those resources go up I see the efficiency increasing too. People actually buy a TV Guide, --personally I find that to be one of todays oxymorons--, lets face it, when 20 million people buy these things that puts a lot of pressure on the trees.

This year as my children opened gifts and I was asked to remove them from the packaging, I was appalled to see the amount of material used to hold a Weeble farm in its packaging. There was more packing material than toy. This was true for almost all the individual toys that the girls received.

To readdress wood cutting and todays practices, I would like to say that the efficiency of the harvesting is only a reflection of the demand of the general populace. More people, more houses and more butts to wipe equals lots of wood and paper. Lets face it, if we're going to talk about greed lets start the list with medical doctors, lawyers and the oil companies. Philantropy shouldn't be measured by how thick your wallet is, rather how thin.

I think that there are lots of great, proactive organizations out there that are buying property to preserve it and I find that admirable and try to contribute if I can. I do get a little concerned when people start complaining about what others are doing with there own personal property thinking that they have the right to tell them what they can and can't do with it. I feel that if I don't want a house to be built across the street from me then I should buy the property and pay the taxes on it. I don't feel that I have the right to tell the person who does buy it that they can't build a house on it.

I see the issue evolving into a personal property issue and not a forestry issue at all.

This year as my children opened gifts and I was asked to remove them from the packaging, I was appalled to see the amount of material used to hold a Weeble farm in its packaging. There was more packing material than toy. This was true for almost all the individual toys that the girls received.

Sheesh! How many times have I cut myself trying to get that INDESTRUCTIBLE plastic off of something! LOL!

RULOST2? - who works at WalMart - says that it's amazing how many shoplifters manage to get through that HEAVY plastic to steal something. They are CONSTANTLY finding open (empty) packaging throughout the store.

I love a great stand of trees as much as anyone, but I'd rather see things packaged in wood or paper than plastic.

I shudder at the thought of the amount of plastic we put into the environment. Last night I was eating yogurt - organic yogurt. I put that part in only because in this situation and in light of this thread what I noticed made me shrug my shoulders. The container that was used was not recyclable - ugh - one of those "fantastic" plastic products. So here we have a product that has been made using a special growing/production process to ensure it is kept organic and chemical free while the container that is used is made by a plant that may (or may not!) take appropriate measure to ensure that what it spews into the air during the manufacturing process is clean and won't cause harm to things like the food we eat. Rather ironic, I thought.

Last night I was eating yogurt - organic yogurt. I put that part in only because in this situation and in light of this thread what I noticed made me shrug my shoulders. The container that was used was not recyclable - ugh - one of those "fantastic" plastic products.

Hmmm...

I just checked the yogurt in our fridge (NOT organic), and see that it's in polystyrene containers. Since I'm a big advocate of recycling, I checked to see what I could find about recycling polystyrene.
Here's what I found. I thought it was interesting.